Irene Blanck and Her New Best Friends

So, yes, the world CAN handle this much fabulousness in one room.  This is a picture of my TAS group.  Well, most of us anyways.  We were fortunate enough to have Irene Blanck come and teach us for a few days in October.  Irene is from Melbourne, AUS and she was traveling the US, giving classes, before landing in Houston for the big quilt market.  Luckily, Dana D. knew it and we were able to put Mascoutah on her itinerary!  Such a wonderful experience.  Irene is a real gem.  Yeah, that's me, the bright pink shirt with my arm draped over Irene like she's my new best friend... No invasion of personal space happening there... Awkward...  the photo is courtesy of Irene's blog.

An upside down picture of everyone's center piece.  It's fantastic to see everyone's interpretation.  The dark backgrounds are so interesting!  I hope they finish the project so I can see them when they're done. 

 These are pics of Irene's quilt.  Mostly for my benefit.  I wanted to have something to refer to as I do mine.  The primitive style is totally different than anything I've done before.  Her technique is to glue everything in place and then sew it all down at once.  Thant was weird for me.  I'm real used to back basting.   It was also strange for me to work with such a large piece of fabric at once.  The center is 42" square.

 The English paper piecing was new as well.  I finally cleaned my studio up last night from the class, put the paper pieces aside to work on later, and damned if I can't find them now!  I'm sure they're put away nicely somewhere!

 The lovely Irene with her quilt "Mosaics".

 

 I managed to finish a block for my Art Nouveau quilt.  I've finished another as well but haven't gotten a picture yet.  Only 3 more blocks to go!  Morning Glory Designs had the blocks on sale 1/2 price this weekend, so I bought the 2 I needed to finish.  Then, I have to figure out how to finish it.  Borders?  I feel like the only color should be the blocks.

 My October CQJP block.  Not my favorite.  I feel like I'm losing inspiration on the crazy quilting front.  I do recall someone telling me in the beginning that his particular block would be difficult to do.  Guess she was right.   A break might be in order but this project is all but done so, you I can''t stop now.

 I participated in a Halloween postcard swap.  This was my entry.

Lay off starts after this next week!  You know how I love this time of year!  While I was cleaning my studio, I also started my list of UFOs to accomplish while I've got the time off.  More on that later.  For now, I hope you enjoy your day!